Liz & Jo's opens in lower Stanley Village

Diane Muno opens fifth retail shop in Estes Park

By Barb Boyer Buck

Trail-Gazette

Posted:
02/18/2015 08:49:13 AM MST

Diane Muno in her new shop, Liz & Jo's, which opened January in lower Stanley Village. (Barb Boyer Buck/ Estes Park Trail-Gazette)

It's difficult to make just one business grow and be successful in Estes Park, let alone four. But Diane Muno - owner of Spruce House, Christmas Shop,White Orchid, and White Orchid Bridal - has just opened a fifth, Liz & Jo's, located in lower Stanley Village.

"Having one business, with the seasonality of it is difficult," Muno said. "That is why I grew initially. I had year-round expenses, but the income came in only seasonally. Therefore, if you can afford to grow, you do."

Muno bought the Spruce House (located on the west end of Elkhorn Avenue) in 2006; four years later, she opened the Christmas Shop and White Orchid on East Elkhorn. White Orchid Bridal was opened in 2012 and in late January, Muno expanded that space by knocking down the wall between the bridal shop and a vacant retail spot next door. Instead of expanding the bridal offerings, she opted to create a new retail store - named after her daughter, Elizabeth and her two sons, John and Joseph - which carries primarily apparel and accessories designed to appeal to her children's age group: "the millennials," she said, "but there are a lot of cross-over pieces, too. You can come and shop for yourself, your daughter, or your mom."

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The shop is also meant to work in conjunction with the White Orchid, which sells similar retail items. But at Liz & Jo's, "there are not as many investment pieces, it's more trendy," she explained. "For example, you won't see a lot of $300 handbags here, these are meant to be more seasonal and trendy."

At both shops, there is a fair amount of home decor and gift items also available, but for Liz and Jo's, "it is much trendier," she said, "we looked for vendors who are eco-friendly and for things that are a little more fashion-forward."

The shop also offers costume jewelry, including Ginger Snaps - a line of jewelry and jewel-decorated accessories with interchangable buttons-beads that snap in place to create a different look and introduce varying colors into one piece.

"The price points are great on these, the beads range from $6.99 to $14.99," she said.

Other lines carried at Liz & Jo's include Tees by Tina (shirts and leggings) and Mona B, to name just two.

Muno is preparing to attend three apparel shows in Las Vegas - Wwin, Stitch, and Magic - later this month to help determine what to buy for the shop from the fall collections.

"I don't really like to shop," Muno admitted, "Which is good, I think. It means I'm more discerning."

Muno spent her first career in the field of health care receivables management, in both the public and private sectors. She credits her business acumen to those experiences, gained over a 15-year period.

Today, she serves on the board for Estes Park Medical Center Foundation, Estes Valley Partners for Commerce, and has served as president of the Estes Park Wedding Association. Her take on business and how it has evolved in Estes Park is an interesting perspective.

She fully supports the upcoming Wellness Center, which in particular is a unique opportunity for the business climate in Estes Park to become more stable, she said.

"It (the Wellness Center) will change our business in some respect, but it doesn't change who already come (to Estes Park)," she said. "We need to be a growing destination because we are competing with other destinations who are growing and evolving - and they have a much bigger budget to invest.

"For us to be collaborative is really critical for our community. everyone recognizes the changes, not everyone agrees or buys into it, or wants the change to be what it is turning out to be. but change is inevitable. It's how do we respond to it that is under our control."

In Estes Park, "we're lucky to be able to have the choice of wellness tourism, because of our beautiful surroundings," she said. And it's hard to think of a more clean industry to attract to town.

"I campaigned very hard for the wellness center," she said; "I still see that as a real niche future for our community."

Muno encourages all to attend the Wellness Center Summit, coming up in April, to which all Estes Park business are invited. "It will help businesses in the community understand what their relationship can be to buying into the concept of the wellness community," she said, "And who it will attract as a destination visitor."

In addition, she goes on record for supporting The Loop project - although she's not sure which configuration for traffic improvements in downtown Estes Park would be the best one to implement.

"The only option that I don't support is doing nothing," she said.

With three businesses in various locations in downtown Estes Park, and two located east of downtown in Stanley Village, "I will be affected no matter what," she said. But she still thinks that something needs to be done to mitigate the growing congestion problem in the downtown area.

"And we've got the money," she said, referring to the grant funding received for these improvements. "If we don't take it, we still have to come up with money to do flood mitigation."

In every case with the inevitable change facing Estes Park, "we need to stay involved; we cannot say nobody came to knock on my door to tell me this - we have to reach out and figure out what's going on," she said, adding that the Estes Valley Partners for Commerce is an excellent forum for businesses to be heard, even if what's expressed is negative.

"Disagreement is healthy, as long as we realize we are all in this together," she said. " If we want to participate, it's because we all have the same long-term goals."

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